Married mothers' perceptions of their premature or term infants and the quality of their relationships with their husbands.
Twenty-eight mothers of premature infants and 37 mothers of term infants were examined for their perceptions of their infants and of their relationships with their husbands at two to four postpartum days and at six to eight postpartum weeks. The mothers tended to perceive their infants positively, whether or not the infants were born prematurely. Preterm mothers who compared their infants to an average premature infant were more positive than term mothers who compared their infants to an average term infant. An association was not found in either group between mothers' perceptions of their infants and of the quality of their relationships with their husbands. However, mothers with negative perceptions of their infants also tended to have difficult marriages.
Weingarten
C T
CT
College of Nursing, Villanova University, PA 19085.
Baker
K
K
Manning
W
W
Kutzner
S K
SK
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D005260:Female; D006764:Hospitals, Community; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D008393:Marriage; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D009515:New Jersey; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D049590:Postpartum Period; D011247:Pregnancy